Break the Ice in the New School Year with This Activity!

What’s your favorite form of potato? What’s a hobby you’ve picked up in the last few months? What song describes your life right now?

Whether you’re teaching in an online environment or in person, the start of a new school year means it’s time to get to know your students, break down walls to build relationships, and set them up for success in the coming weeks and months.

There’s no easier way to start doing this than by introducing a fun icebreaker activity to help your class get to know one another and begin creating a class community.

Read on for a simple activity to break the ice this school year.

Fun ✔
Easy ✔
Effective ✔

Icebreaker activity: Two Truths and a Lie

Get to know your students a bit better through this quick and easy icebreaker activity!

Two Truths and a Lie asks students to come up with two truths about themselves as well as one lie. The lie should be one that is plausible and the truths hard to believe (if possible).

This activity is designed to:

• Help you get to know your students
• Help students get to know each other
• Help students feel comfortable sharing and opening up in your class

You’ll begin by creating the activity in your SpacesEDU teacher account using the instructions below (or watch the video for a complete walkthrough of Acitvities!)

Once you’ve assigned it to students, they can complete it in the format of their choice (an audio recording, video recording, text entry, etc.).

Review the completed activity submissions and make your guess on each. Once you’ve reviewed and marked the activity as complete, comes the fun part…

Have students comment on each other’s activity posts with their guesses. Afterwards, the students can share which of their three items was the lie!

Not sure how to enable student comments? Learn how.

How to create this activity in SpacesEDU

1. In your SpacesEDU account, Click +Create (bottom right corner) and choose Activity
2. In your Activity Portal, click New Activity
3. Choose your Class
4. Choose your Space (Class space in this case)
5. Copy and paste the Title and Instructions below
6. Choose a Start Date and End Date if desired
7. Click Assign (top right corner)

Activity instructions to copy and paste

Title: Ice Breaker: Two Truths and a Lie

Space: Class

Instructions:

Let's break the ice and get to know each other better.

1. Record two truths and a lie about yourself (your choice of format).
2. Once everyone has completed the activity, I will make my guess on what the lie is.
3. After the completed activity has been released to you, post your guesses on your classmates' posts
4. Share the correct answer on your activity post!

Have another class you’d like to assign the activity to? No problem!

1. Head to your Activities tab
2. Find the activity you’d like to assign
3. Click the three dots to the right and then Copy Activity
4. Choose your Class, Space, and make any modifications you’d like
5. Click Assign

Do you have a fun icebreaker activity that you use with students? Tweet us @spaces_edu to share!